Group: Yahoo Helped China Vs. Dissident
BEIJING (AP)- Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) turned over e-mail information of one of its users to Chinese authorities, who used the data to jail the account holder on subversion charges, a rights group said Wednesday.
It was the third time the U.S.-based Internet company has been accused of helping to put a Chinese user in prison.
Jiang Lijun, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for posting Internet articles calling for the overthrow of the Communist Party.
Yahoo's Hong Kong unit gave authorities a draft e-mail that had been saved on Jiang's account, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, citing the verdict by the Beijing No. 2 People's Court. The group provided a translated copy of the verdict.
Entitled "Declaration," the draft was similar to manuscripts called "Freedom and Democracy Party Program" and "Declaration of Establishment" which were recovered from a computer and a floppy disk owned by two other activists, the verdict said.
The information was listed in the verdict under "physical evidence and written evidence."
Telephones at Yahoo's Hong Kong office and at Alibaba.com, which runs Yahoo's mainland China operations, rang unanswered on Wednesday evening.
"Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo is implicated in the arrest of most of the people we have been defending," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
Yahoo has also been criticized by rights groups by providing information in the cases of Li Zhi and Shi Tao.
Li, from southwestern China, was sentenced to prison for subversion after posting comments online criticizing official corruption. Shi, a reporter, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he sent an e-mail abroad containing notes about a government memo on media restrictions.
It was the third time the U.S.-based Internet company has been accused of helping to put a Chinese user in prison.
Jiang Lijun, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for posting Internet articles calling for the overthrow of the Communist Party.
Yahoo's Hong Kong unit gave authorities a draft e-mail that had been saved on Jiang's account, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, citing the verdict by the Beijing No. 2 People's Court. The group provided a translated copy of the verdict.
Entitled "Declaration," the draft was similar to manuscripts called "Freedom and Democracy Party Program" and "Declaration of Establishment" which were recovered from a computer and a floppy disk owned by two other activists, the verdict said.
The information was listed in the verdict under "physical evidence and written evidence."
Telephones at Yahoo's Hong Kong office and at Alibaba.com, which runs Yahoo's mainland China operations, rang unanswered on Wednesday evening.
"Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo is implicated in the arrest of most of the people we have been defending," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
Yahoo has also been criticized by rights groups by providing information in the cases of Li Zhi and Shi Tao.
Li, from southwestern China, was sentenced to prison for subversion after posting comments online criticizing official corruption. Shi, a reporter, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he sent an e-mail abroad containing notes about a government memo on media restrictions.
posted by Marko at 4/19/2006 07:53:00 AM
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